Ruptured Spleen Symptoms, Causes, Treatment and Recovery

What are the symptoms of a ruptured spleen?A symptom is something the patient and describes the senses, while the sign is something that other people, such as contract physician. For example, sleepiness may be a symptom, while dilated pupils may be a sign.

If you notice any pain in the abdomen, in particular the upper quadrant on the left, this may be a symptom of a rupture. To determine what a ruptured spleen feels like, you have to have experienced a sort of a physical blow to the torso. The spleen not only injure themselves.

If you tap the stomach, the area will be soft to the touch and painful inside.You must look at their vision. If you start to feel light headed or even have a blurry vision, is a classic sign of what a ruptured spleen yen. This means you could lose a lot of blood inside your body.

Pay attention to the mental awareness. Having someone you can talk with you and make believe they are not confused. When you lose enough blood, you feel disoriented and confused.

What are the causes of a ruptured spleen?Some diseases and illnesses can also lead to a rupture of the spleen. In such cases, the spleen is swollen and the capsule-like covering becomes thin. This makes the body very brittle and more likely to break if it receives a direct blow to the abdomen (such as strong tackle football).

Blood cancers, infections and metabolic disorders are some of the things that can cause an enlarged spleen. Enlargement of the spleen may also be caused by diseases of the liver, such as cirrhosis and cystic fibrosis.

Breakage of a normal spleen can be caused by trauma, for example, in an accident. If the spleen of an individual is enlarged, as is common in mononucleosis, most physicians do not allow activities (such as contact sports) where injury to the abdomen could be catastrophic.Recent studies have also linked the colonoscopy, a procedure that looks at the large intestine, with an increased risk of splenic rupture.

A ruptured spleen is a medical condition that can lead to serious complications or death if not treated in a timely manner. This condition results in damage to the spleen that causes the body to start bleeding, causing the abdomen to fill with blood. Patients with a ruptured spleen tend to suffer from severe pain that causes them to seek medical treatment. The spleen is located in the upper left abdomen.

This non-essential organ helps the body to filter the blood, support the immune system and the generation of some types of blood cells. The organ is actually hidden under the rib cage to protect it from damage, but severe traumatic events, such as car accidents, misplaced blows blows and sports injuries can cause rupture of the spleen. Some people are at increased risk of rupture of the spleen because the spleen has become enlarged due to infection, in which case your doctor may recommend avoiding strenuous activity until the swelling is reduced.

When there is a rupture of the spleen, the capsule of the spleen breaks, releasing the blood that fills the organ. The body will continue to blood in the spleen road even if it is broken, causing the leakage of blood into the abdominal cavity. Patients usually experience severe pain in all their abdomens, along with a feeling of fullness. Some may develop confusion, blurred vision, light headedness, and as a result of blood loss. The abdomen may also appear bruised or feel tender. Historically, a rupture of the spleen was treated with surgery to remove the offending organ, followed by drugs to support the body once the spleen was removed.

Today, doctors prefer to use medical imaging studies to assess the severity of the damage, and may simply choose to hospitalize a patient for several days and support healing of the spleen, rather than just the removal. Blood transfusions may also be required if the patient has experienced a significant loss of blood from a ruptured spleen. Fortunately, rupture of the spleen usually causes pain that is so severe that patients seek treatment, ensuring that the rupture of the spleen is identified and promptly addressed.

More severe conditions such as appendicitis can also cause extreme abdominal pain, which makes it important to seek immediate medical attention for persistent abdominal pain. Since that surgery may be necessary, patients may want to go straight to the hospital, although a visit to a doctor established may allow patients to skip the wait at the emergency room and be admitted directly to hospital by their doctors, assuming that physicians have admitting privileges at a hospital.

A physical exam may be the only test done to diagnose a ruptured spleen. The doctor will feel the belly area of ​​the person and the abdomen may feel swollen and watch because it is full of blood.

If there was a great loss of blood from the spleen, the patient may have low blood pressure and a rapid heart rate. Sudden drop in blood pressure in someone who is believed to have a lesion of the spleen, especially a young, is a sign that the condition is particularly serious and urgent surgery is necessary.

Imaging tests can help diagnose a ruptured spleen. A computed tomography (CT) scan of the abdomen is one of the most commonly used. During the test, a special substance, called contrast, is injected into a vein, usually in the arm. The contrast helps the doctor to determine the amount of blood from the spleen. Active bleeding from the spleen can not be seen on an abdominal CT scan without contrast.

However, a CT scan of the abdomen may be done only if time permits. A CT scan with contrast medium may take some time, and some people with broken spleen died while waiting to get the test done. For this reason, a CT scan is not recommended for those with a ruptured spleen that have unstable vital signs or low blood pressure because of the injury suggests that shock.

Diagnostic peritoneal lavage is a method to quickly determine if blood is collected in the abdominal area. It 's fast and inexpensive, and can be done on patients splenic rupture, which has low blood pressure.

An MRI of the abdomen may be an option for patients with renal impairment or who have severe allergies to the substance of contrast used during a CT scan.If the person is stable and does not require emergency surgery, laboratory testing as a complete blood count (CBC) or hemoglobin level can be conducted at regular intervals to check the blood loss.

The spleen is an organ that can easily go for violent trauma to rupture affecting the abdomen or indirectly have an impact on it. Among all, the spleen is in fact the internal organ more frequently injured in the thoraco-abdominal trauma, because of its intrinsic fragility, of the rich vasculature, the presence of a long vascular pedicle (artery and vein lienale), and the connection to the various ligaments that transmit forces from other bodies.The splenic lesions large extent become the rupture of the spleen in a true medical emergency that requires immediate surgery to stop internal bleeding and save the life of the patient. In case of multiple superficial injuries, a ruptured spleen can be treated conservatively, hospitalization for a few days the patient and observing the developments towards the possible spontaneous recovery.Causes

In the introduction, we saw how the rupture of the spleen is common as a result of violent trauma affecting the abdomen, like a car accident, a serious fall, a punch during a fight or a penetrating wound (bullet, stab etc. .). The severe splenic injuries are also common in cases of violent falls from above, feet or buttocks, trauma to the abdomen while not directly affecting an impact on it.

Then there are the circumstances, not so rare, in which the spleen becomes particularly susceptible to breakage, even after modest or insignificant trauma, such as a cough, a sneeze, gags, stress on defecation, or a too vigorous palpation of the organ. In general, the risk of spontaneous breakage or secondary to trauma minimum is high in case of splenomegaly (enlarged spleen), especially if severe. Here, then, that the rupture of the spleen becomes more common during certain diseases, such as infectious mononucleosis, malaria, schistosomiasis, cirrhosis, hemolytic anemia (eg thalassemia), Gaucher's disease, sarcoidosis, leukemia hairy cell, chronic myelogenous leukemia, chronic lymphocytic leukemia, etc.. For this reason, in these individuals (eg. Children with infectious mononucleosis) the practice of contact sports or high risk of trauma is highly recommended by doctors.

Symptoms and Complications

The spleen is located in the upper left quadrant of the abdomen, just below the diaphragm, protected from the last ribs left hemithorax, under normal conditions the size of a fist. In the presence of a violent trauma of the abdomen, the patient complains of severe pain in this region (left hypochondrium, supero-lateral quadrant of the abdomen left), which radiates to the ipsilateral shoulder (left) and is aggravated by palpation. The abdominal walls are ipercontratte and the abdomen is distended by the accumulation of blood in the abdominal cavity, in addition the internal bleeding leads gradually to a state hemorrhagic shock, marked by symptoms such as paleness, anxiety, tachycardia, dizziness and confusion. Not always, however, the clinical manifestations of splenic rupture are established so early, the bleeding, then it may not be immediate but occur at a later time, with a latency of a few days after the trauma and late-onset disorders, even after 6-7 days after the accident.

Of course, the rupture of the spleen may be isolated or associated with lesions of other organs, complicating the clinical manifestations and prognosis, and when there was no association with lesions of other organs, splenic rupture mortality is high (10-20%), while in the case of isolated lesion mortality is around 4%.

Diagnosis and Treatment

The media are essential diagnostic CT and ultrasound, which corroborate the suspect emerged from the examination of a patient; peritoneal lavage has also an important diagnostic utility (we introduce a small catheter, a flexible plastic tube, abdomen , to extract and analyze the liquid sucked searching for the presence of blood).

Because of the important vascularization, rupture of the spleen can cause massive bleeding, with accumulation of blood in the abdominal cavity and the onset of hypovolemic shock until death. In such circumstances, the immediate surgical splenectomy (removal of the spleen) can be lifesaving for the patient without significant clinical complications.

Compared to the past, thanks to the appreciation of the role of the spleen and immune to the risk of severe post-operative infections, splenectomy surgery is now performed with greater caution. The doctors, in essence, tend to observe the patient to see if the bleeding is able to stop spontaneously, reserving the intervention to cases in which there is the spontaneous healing. Moreover, during surgery when one tries possible to repair the lesion, for example by applying sutures, or to remove only the part affected by the rupture of the spleen (splenectomy subtotal or partial).

The spleen is a small organ located just below the ribcage on the left side. Normally, the spleen is the size of a fist, but a number of conditions can cause a swelling of the organ, also known as splenomegaly.

Most people do not have symptoms of enlargement of the spleen. The problem is often discovered during a routine examination.

Symptoms

An enlarged spleen can cause:

No symptomsPain or fullness in the abdomen the upper left which can extend up to the left shoulderFeeling of fullness that can occur when an enlarged spleen presses on the stomachAnemiaFatigueFrequent infectionsEasy bleedingConsult your doctor if you have pain in the upper left corner, especially if it is severe or if the pain gets worse when you take a deep breath.

Causes

A number of infections and diseases can contribute to an enlarged spleen. The effects on the spleen may be only temporary.

How does the spleen

The spleen is hidden under the rib cage next to the stomach on the left of 'abdomen. It is a spongy organ that performs several critical jobs and that can be easily damaged. Among other things, the spleen:

Filter and destroys old blood cells and damagedPlays a key role in preventing infections by producing white blood cells called lymphocytesIt has important hematopoietic functionsIt can act as an intermediary between the immune system and brainAn enlarged spleen affects each of these vital functions.